Introduction

Louis Voisin
was a French butcher who worked in London. It was his poor English spelling
which provided damming evidence against him at his trial for the murder
of a former mistress.

The Case
Details

In the early
morning of 2 November 1917, a roadman known as Jack the Sweeper found
a bundle in Regent Square, in Bloomsbury. The bundle had been done up
in sacking had been dropped over the railings of the central garden; the
garden that was tended to by Jack the Sweeper. Once he untied the bundle
he found that it contained the trunk and arms of a women, but the head,
legs and hands were all missing. Jack the Sweeper then ran and found a
police constable.

A further
search of the garden in Regent Square found a paper parcel, which contained
both missing legs. There was no sign of the head and both hands. The sacking
which had contained the torso was a meat sack, stencilled with the words
"Argentina La Plata Cold Storage". On a sheet was a laundry
mark, sewn in red cotton, which read "II H." With the
remains were some pieces of course muslin, silk and lace underwear, and
a scrap of brown paper on which the words "Blodie Belgiam"
were roughly scrawled.

The Metropolitan
Police quickly traced the laundry mark to 50 Munster Square, located in
the neighbourhood east of Regent's Park. The occupant of two rooms in
the house was a 32 year old French lady, Emilienne Gerard, whose husband
was away fighting in the French Army. She had been missing since 31 October
1917, when there had been an air raid by German Zeppelins. Examination
of Gerard's rooms located a number of small bloodstains in both the kitchen
and bedroom. On a table was a IOU for £50 signed by Louis Voisin,
whose portrait also hang over the mantelpiece. With the knowledge that
the dismemberment had been performed by someone with an understanding
of anatomy, the meat sack, the muslin was a type used by butchers to wrap
meat and that Voisin was a butcher, the police decided to question Voisin.

Louis Voisin
lived in the basement of 101 Charlotte Street, which was less than half
a mile from Munster Square and a mile from Regent Square. When the police
arrived to question Voisin, he was seated in the kitchen with a woman
called Berthe Roche. Both were then taken for further questioning at Bow
Street Police Station. Voisin, who spoke broken English, was a powerfully-built
man: short and thick-set, with a heavy jaw and dark upturned moustaches.
Berthe Roche understood little English and so a police officer who spoke
French was used during the questioning. Chief Inspector Wensley, who led
the investigation, asked Voisin if he would write the phrase "Bloody
Belgium". After some hesitation, Voisin wrote the phrase five times
and each time he made the identical spelling mistake. The handwriting
in each example also closely matched the example found on the brown paper.

More incriminating
evidence was soon discovered. The rent of Mme. Gerard's room in Munster
Square was paid by Voisin who also had a key to the room. He stated that
he called there on 2 November to feed the cat. While there, Voisin explained
to the landlord that Mme Gerard would be away for a week or two and that
he was expecting delivery of a sack of potatoes. Voisin's own kitchen
was stained and an earring, later identified as Mme Gerard's, was found
in a blood-stained towel. Among the keys taken from Voisin was that of
a coal cellar underneath the pavement of Charlotte Street. In this cellar
was found a cask containing the missing head and both hands.

The
barrel on the right contained the head and hands.

From the
remains and having visited both Munster Square and Charlotte Street rooms,
the pathologist Bernard Spilsbury reconstructed how Mme Gerard has died.
She had been struck by at least 8 blows on the head and face. These blows
had not killed her, though her head was a mess. They were followed by
an attempt at strangulation, for which the towel served to muffle her
cries; which is when an earring became caught in the towel. Spilsbury
confirmed that the dismemberment had been performed by a butcher with
a butcher's knife. After examining the rooms at Munster Square and Charlotte
Street, it was obviously a the later place that the attack had occurred.
In the back room, mingled with traces of animal blood, there was human
blood everywhere. Chiefly it lay in lines and splashes on the floor and
wall round a door leading into a back-yard. There was also human blood
found on the door and the ceiling above the door. There were yet more
stains of human blood found on the sink and draining board.

It appears
that the following is what happened to Mme Gerard. On the night of 31
October 1917, during the air raid, she had gone to shelter with Voisin
in his basement in Charlotte Street. Once she had arrived, she found Berthe
Roche with her lover. Of the two women, Gerard had known Voisin for far
longer. There was a heated argument during which Gerard probably threatened
Voisin with exposure, upon which Roche struck Gerard several blows with
a poker. It was felt that Voisin had not struck the blows, as with both
his expertise and strength there would have been one powerful blow instead
of the several blows to Gerard's head. When Gerard cried out, Voisin grabbed
her from behind and smothered her cries with the towel while Roche continued
the attack with the poker. After killing her they dismembered the body
and conveyed some of the remains to Mme Gerard's rooms at Munster Square;
hence Voisin's telling the landlord that he was expecting a sack of potatoes.
He then smeared some blood around Gerard's kitchen and took away a sheet
from the bed. Intending to confuse any subsequent investigations, Voisin
wrote the note (including the spelling mistake) and left the sack, sheet
and note in Regent Square; where they were later discovered by the cleaner
Jack the Sweeper. As the head and hands were still recognisable, they
were kept by Voisin in his cellar.

Although
Roche had struck the blows with the poker, the judge at their Old Bailey
trial ruled that Roche should she held on remand. Voisin was found guilty
of the murder of Mme Gerard and sentenced to death by hanging.

On 2 March
1918, Louis Voisin (aged 42) was executed at London's Pentonville Prison.
The Chief Executioner was John Ellis.

Berthe Roches
was later tried and found guilty of being an accessory after the fact.
She was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment. However, she went mad in prison
and was committed to a hospital for the insane where she died on 22 March
1919.